Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace may be as eagerly anticipated as the Second Coming of Christ. Imagine the critics of Jesus' return: Evangelicals complaining that the Catholics were favored at their expense, Hindus and Buddhists asking what the big deal is since Christianity not a 'serious' religion like theirs, and Pat Buchanan calling Jesus a Communist on "Crossfire." But you ought to see this movie, the same way that if you knew God was returning, you want to be in Jerusalem to see the spectacle.
It's gorgeous. The scenes set in the capitol of the planet Naboo are James Gurney illustrations come alive. The Mediterranean architecture drips with foliage and detail. The computer-generated city-planet of Coursucant looks real. Queen Amidala's chrome-plated paean to the SR-71 has the correct ray traced reflections as it sweeps past. And that's what feels funny about Phantom Menace: the visual details distract me from the rest of the movie.
Consider Natalie Portman, in her elaborate headgear, Kabuki-Bedouin makeup and fantastical gowns as Queen Amidala. In contrast Carrie Fisher's simple robe in Star Wars was enough to convince me that she was highborn and important. I liked how Queen Amidala was handled. She's as cool as Princess Leia in a firefight, and portrayed as an intelligent leader, even though she seems lost in her costume.
When the visuals drop away, and I'm left with mere humans on the screen, I can't tell you if Liam Neeson is carrying the film through those stretches because I'm catching my breath. Then Lucas starts throwing more effects at me and I'm too busy processing the visuals to handle anything like plot or character.
The other problem is that unlike Star Wars, Lucas has decided to use this film to set up the next two. Star Wars was self-contained: discover heritage, rescue princess, destroy weapon-of-mass-destruction. Things that could had been backgrounded such as Senator Palpatine's scheming and Anakin Skywalker's potential threat to the Jedi Order are pulled into the foreground, and have to compete with the narrative. Between the eye-candy and the sub-plot shrapnel, you forget that the protagonists still have to save Naboo from the Trade Federation. In fact, we don't know what's going on on Naboo -- just a hologram phone call saying that things are bad. Applying some of those effects skills on a scene showing how bad things were would have given some urgency to the matter.
I am impressed by Lucas' achievements: his team has pushed computer animation ahead. I forgot that the CGI comic relief frog man, Jar Jar Binks, was CGI. The melding of live action and CGI was an order of magnitude above Babylon Five.
Still, Lucas could had aimed higher, and focused on telling one story instead of setting up the whole second trilogy.